Iranian Ph.D Candidate Forced Off Greyhound Bus

An Iranian man believes he was discriminated against after a Greyhound bus driver removed him from a bus hundreds of miles away from his destination.

Mohammad Reza, who is an International Ph.D candidate in Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of Texas, was taking a Greyhound bus from Dallas to Kansas City on Nov. 13, the Daily Mail reported. He was on his way to give a research presentation at a Transportation Research Board national conference.

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Reza transferred to a new bus in Oklahoma City that night. He reportedly decided to rest before his 8:30 a.m. conference, but was awakened by the bus driver, who asked to see his ticket at around 3 a.m.

"The first thing that I remember is I showed my phone, the eTicket that I had," Reza told KXAS. "But, she was very angry and she started yelling that, 'I cannot accept this cell phone ticket.'

"She asked me, 'Do you understand what the meaning of printed copy is?' I thought that maybe because of my accent -- I am an international student here -- or my name [that] she saw on the cell phone, the PDF file. She did not explain."

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By the time Reza found the tangible copy, the driver had already ordered him to leave the bus. He recorded part of the exchange and uploaded the video on Facebook.

"You're not going with me. I don't want to talk to you no more. Get off my bus!" the driver is heard telling Reza, who is seen with a ticket in his hand. "Police is helping you off. Don't worry. Police is coming. You're not going with me."

Reza said he recorded the video because he was afraid of what could happen to him.

"It was my last chance, based on previous experiences happening with airlines," Reza explained. "I know police are coming and I had to tell my wife or my friends what was happening inside because 3 a.m. I didn't know what was going to happen next."

Reza added that none of the passengers in the bus took his side during the incident.

"It was a very scary situation," Reza said. "One of them approached me at my seat and loudly said [the] 'F-word' and told me, 'If you are not leaving the bus we want to do something with you here in the bus.'"

When authorities arrived, they took the bus driver's side and left Reza at a closed Greyhound station in Wichita at 3:40 a.m. The next bus wasn't scheduled to leave until 2:30 p.m.

Reza was forced to call a Lyft and paid $250 to get to his destination. He flew home to Dallas later that night instead of using the return trip bus ticket he had already purchased.

"I was surprised [when I was removed] because I asked different times, 'What is the reason? Please tell me if I did something wrong, please tell me,' and they do not answer my questions," Reza said.

Greyhound has sincedissued a statement regarding the incident.

"Greyhound does not tolerate discrimination of any kind and is taking these allegations very seriously," a company spokesperson told KXAS. "We've identified the driver and are currently conducting a thorough investigation into the matter."